failure to settle the Louisiana boundary for the sake of its claims on the Columbia.
Lack of interest in Oregon, except among Astor's connections; John Floyd's first report on Oregon. The truth is, that in 1818 very few Americans had the slightest interest in the region west of the Rocky Mountains. Bryant wrote of it, in 1817, as,—
So far as we know, those who had been directly or indirectly interested in the Astor enterprise were the only agitators for the adoption of an Oregon policy by the government. Some of the Astor partners, it appears, were in touch with Representative John Floyd of Virginia at Washington.[2] Possibly their accounts of Oregon aroused his interest in the country as a valuable future possession of the United States. At all events, on the 20th of December, 1820, Mr. Floyd brought the question forward for the first time in the Congress of the United States. He wished "to inquire into the situation of the settlements on the Pacific Ocean, and the expediency of occupying the Columbia River." One month later, Floyd, at the head of a committee of
- ↑ Because of the popularity of Bryant's "Thanatopsis "in which the lines occur, the name Oregon was brought prominently before the public. Bryant doubtless obtained it from Carver's Travels.
- ↑ See Bourne, E. G. Aspects of Oregon History Previous to 1840. Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. IV, p. 255.
